The enemies of the UN are shelving their differences and uniting in a secret organization which the Un-men call "'...the gang...'" (p. 55) "'...whose one purpose is to weaken and destroy the U.N.'" (ibid.)
The gang comprises:
fanatical nationalists cooperating now to gain the chance to attack each other later;
brilliant leadership by a lot of big men;
front organizations like the Americanist Party;
governments which are UN members only because of public opinion and because such strong pressure can be mobilized against non-members;
the Chinese successors of the assassinated Kwang-ti who have rejoined the UN but only to sabotage it;
some UN Councillors;
an unknown number of UN employees.
Their tactics:
corruption;
arrogance;
inefficiency;
illegal actions by gang agents within the UN, carefully publicized;
exposure of UN secrets, like the assassination of Kwang-ti which had been passed off as a democratic conspiracy but the UN involvement has since been leaked.
The planned culmination:
a badly weakened UN, losing public confidence;
whole countries withdrawing;
military revolutions in pivotal countries;
military seizure of the Moon bases (as in Heinlein's "The Long Watch");
a return to discord, war and dictatorship;
the hunting down of "'...every Un-man in the Solar System...'" (ibid.)
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
And one reason why Anderson became dissatisfied with the Psychotechnic series was probably because he came to think he had done an injustice at least to some of those who opposed the UN in the stories. Not all nationalists, for example, are murderous fanatics lusting to set up dictatorships. Or desiring to wage wars of aggression.
Also, I think Anderson probably came to think too many of the anti-UN people in these stories were implausibly incompetent.
Ad astra! Sean
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